"Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist."
Consciousness is like a fractal: the areas (thoughts) into which you zoom (think) characterize what follows; the process continues indefinitely and you can change focus at any time. So, think about beautiful things.
Oliver
From the diary of a loved one, responding to the prompt, “What are you most afraid of?” January: Being overwhelmed by work. May: losing someone. July: Other people’s expectations. October: the failure of our democracy.
Oliver
“Our people are our most valuable asset.” I know it’s possible to abstract human beings into cost and income data in your calculations as an expedient, but when you say it like this to our face, it makes it seem like you like it.
Oliver
Frauds like Keith Raniere of NXIVM are quick to use “tech,” thus, as a mask. You are what gets packaged, then sold back to yourself.
Oliver
Tit-for-tat is one of the worst habits of conversation/debate in the book. In any system where we can possibly eliminate tit-for-tat, we do: imagine, say, that if your computer transmitted erroneous traffic, the server might send an error as payback.
Oliver
If we take Douglas Hofstadter’s view of thinking, we have concepts and analogies (old concepts applied to new things or new connections found between them). On the Web, our concepting (content) seems overdeveloped and our analogy-making (links) seems underdeveloped.
Oliver
In writing, relationships, systems, we permit hierarchy and linearity as expedients, even though they are often unnatural. They endure, however, as they delight those who genuinely appreciate them, because freedom and choice make them uncomfortable.
Oliver
The totality of hyperlinks between webpages is arguably the most interesting informational structure ever created. It should be the our common inheritance but, because modern Web hyperlinks go one-way only, this system is mostly invisible, or sold back to us, flawed, for profit.
Philosophy Smell #4: “Book Barricade”—To refuse to engage with people until they read certain writings. Avoid, because: 1. Useful corrections come from people who read different books; 2. If it’s that good, it’s worth summarizing; 3. Truth is sharpened in collision with error.
Oliver
If one held stock in our values, the market would go in both directions at once: incremental improvements marked by crashes; sudden spurts of idealism, slowly ground down by cynicism and compromise. Unlike in the market, one should buy as high as possible and never sell.
Oliver